


Cured But Still Sneezing

by sarahgirl1998



Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Allergies, Comedy, Gen, Humor, Lumpy from Happy Tree Friends Sneezes, Sneezing, Sneezing from Feathers, Sneezing from Flowers, Sneezing from Pepper, Sneezing from Pollen, Sneezing from a Cold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22754182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahgirl1998/pseuds/sarahgirl1998
Summary: Short story about Lumpy sneezing from many things, just after taking the cure for the common cold.
Kudos: 2





	Cured But Still Sneezing

"Ugh..."

Lumpy sniffled loudly as he rubbed his hand underneath his nose. He really wasn't feeling good; he felt tired, his throat was sore, and his nose was a bright red. The poor moose had come down with yet another cold, probably the first one this year.

Luckily, Lumpy had made the decision to visit his friend Sniffles so he could help him. Sniffles was an expert at creating potions, including ones that would cured symptoms as well as diseases. And he had created the cure for the common cold on more than one occasion, so why wouldn't he be able to fix up a dose for Lumpy?

"Aaaaah... Haaaah..." Lumpy inhaled, tilting his neck back. His snout was twitching and his nostrils were flaring up to at least twice their normal size. He was going to sneeze. "AaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHH-- CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Lumpy shot his neck forwards as he released the sneeze, with a good amount of spray being released from his nose. As he sniffled again, Lumpy rubbed his nose with his forefinger.

"Gesundheit, Lumpy," said Sniffles.

"Th-thadk you..." Lumpy replied, still rubbing his nose. A few seconds later, he pulled out a tissue from a nearby box, and held it to the end of his snout as he blew his nose loudly. His nose cleared temporarily, he wiped his nose cutely.

"I know that cold is giving you a hard time, Lumpy," Sniffles went on, "but I'm almost finished with the cure. All you have to do is be patient, okay?"

"Yeah." Lumpy nodded once.

Sniffles went back to working on his potion while Lumpy stood where he was, sniffling and wiping his nose. If he was trying to keep his nose from becoming stuffed up again, however, it wasn't working, and the congestion gradually returned to his nasal passages.

Almost as soon as it happened, however, Sniffles sighed in relief and held a bottle of light purple substance in his hands.

"Lumpy? The antidote is completed."

"Oh, good... Haaaaaaah-- Choo!" Lumpy sneezed again into his tissue, doubling over as he did so, and then wiped his nose with it.

"Bless you," said Sniffles politely. He went up to Lumpy, bottle in hand. "Now, this potion might not taste too good, but it'll definitely help your cold."

"Gee, I hope so..." Lumpy finished wiping his nose, balled up his tissue and dropped it in a nearby waste bin.

Sniffles then handed the bottle to Lumpy. Lumpy looked at the potion for a moment, then removed the lid, held the opening to his lips and began to drink it. Sniffles hadn't been joking, it really didn't taste so good... But Lumpy had had worse, like actual cold medicine. That being said, he took a few breaks in between sips to catch his breath, and try to recover from the pungent flavor.

After almost a minute had gone by, however, the bottle had been drained of its content. Lumpy stood there, sulking a bit as he panted.

"Yeah, that did taste weird..." Lumpy agreed. He handed the bottle back to Sniffles, along with the lid he'd pulled off.

"Any minute now, your cold should go away," Sniffles said. "You'll feel like a new Tree Friend!"

Lumpy smiled at his reassuring comment and then waited a few seconds. Slowly but surely, he regained his energy. The pain in his throat got weaker and weaker until it was no longer there, and the red tinge on his nose slowly faded away. Lumpy took a deep breath through his nose, but felt no congestion or mucus. His cold was completely gone.

"Ah, that's better." His voice had gone back to normal, too. "Thanks, Sniffles!"

"You're welcome, Lumpy," said Sniffles, who then wiped his forehead with his hand in relief. "Phew! Am I glad that's over."

"Me too," Lumpy agreed. "I'm gonna go outside for a little bit now that I'm better."

"Whatever you say," Sniffles replied. "If anything happens that makes you not feel good again, just come on back, okay?"

Lumpy nodded, and then turned and made his way out of the lab. He placed his hand on the back door, turned it and pushed the door open before he headed outside.

The sky was a clear and cloudless blue, the birds were singing, and flowers were blooming everywhere. Lumpy took another inhale through his nose and sighed. It felt so good to breathe again after he had spent the first half of today with a stuffy nose. He walked out onto the fields, looking at the pretty flowers growing from the ground and cute butterflies flying in the air.

Just then, Lumpy noticed a patch of light blue flowers, as blue as his fur. He couldn't help but smile. He didn't know what kind of flowers they were, but he figured that they were growing there so he could enjoy them. Besides, they looked beautiful, and perhaps they smelled lovely, too.

Lumpy walked over to the blue flowers, and bent over to pick one of them. Holding the stem with both hands, he held the flower underneath his nose and took the biggest sniff he could, sucking the petals and center of the flower towards his nose.

Almost immediately after he stopped sniffing, his nose began to twitch again, and his nostrils flared up. The smell of the flower as well as its pollen was tickling his nose and making him need to sneeze. Lumpy pulled the flower away from his nose and began to inhale, his eyelids lowering and also twitching.

"Haaaah... Aaaaaah..." He tilted his upper body back as his nostrils grew and shrunk a few times, and finally gave a huge dramatic breath. "HAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH-- CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Lumpy's sneeze was so strong that it blew the flower straight out of his hands. He still needed to sneeze, however, hence why he didn't realize what he'd done. He just inhaled and sneezed again, three times in a row.

"HAAAAHHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! TCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH-- CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!! ...uuugh..."

Sniffling loudly, Lumpy rubbed his nose with his forefinger as he looked a bit embarrassed. He must have forgotten about his hay fever. At least the flower had smelled good, however. Lumpy turned and walked away from the flowers, not wanting his allergies to give him any more trouble.

As he was, however, he saw a butterfly fluttering around close to him. The butterfly had yellow wings, each one of them having a visible black spot. Lumpy couldn't help but smile at the cute insect.

"Aw, hello there," Lumpy said gently to the butterfly. He was expecting a response, being the silly moose he was, but the butterfly didn't reply.

He did react with light surprise, however, when the butterfly flew onto the tip of his nose.

Lumpy was sure he knew exactly what was going to happen. Every time a bug like a butterfly landed on his nose, he would need to sneeze. He blamed this on his sensitive nose rather than the bug itself, but the butterfly's wings did tickle quite a lot. Lumpy held his breath, trying to resist the urge to sneeze. Just one of his sneezes would definitely scare the butterfly away, or worse, blow it away.

But his nose had already become more sensitive due to his recent allergy attack, so it hadn't even been ten seconds before he gave an enormous gasp and exploded.

"HAAAAAAAAHHHHH-CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

And just like that, the butterfly was propelled right off his nose. It wasn't hurt, however; it simply started beating its wings again and flew away. Lumpy stood there, rubbing his nose again with his forefinger. A small amount of mucus had begun to ooze out of his nostrils from the sneeze.

"Ugh, those darn butterflies..." Lumpy sniffled loudly, then wiped his nose with his hand to stop his nose from running. He couldn't help if he was allergic to butterflies as well. At least it would explain why his nose was feeling drippy.

He gave a couple of deep snuffles to suck the mucus back up his nose. It wasn't as easy as he thought, but he managed and sighed with relief. Just then, however, something soft landed on his nose, and he had a brief expression of shock before another sneeze came firing out of him.

"AHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" The sneeze blew the object off his nose, revealing it to be a white feather from a bird that had been flying over him. And his nose started running again. Lumpy rubbed his nose again, sighing as it had started running again.

"I guess I've had enough time outside..." Lumpy commented.

He bent over and picked up the feather that had just made him sneeze, rubbing his nose with his forefinger as he looked at the small but tickly object. He wasn't all too happy it had landed on his nose, but he didn't want to leave it alone. So he placed it in his pocket for when he wanted to use it, then began to walk home.

However, Lumpy's eyes began to itch and water on his way home. Pollen was filling the air, and his nose began to quiver around in response. Lumpy rubbed his eyes to get rid of the tears, but it wasn't working, and soon he needed to sneeze again.

"Heh... Aaah... HeeeEEHHHH--" Lumpy inhaled, then covered the end of his snout with his hand as he tried to stifle the sneeze. "--HTCHHHH!"

It worked, but wasn’t enough relief, so he sneezed a few more times. He kept these stifled as well so his nose wouldn’t run so much.

”AHH-CHHHHHH! NTSHHHHHH! Huuh-TCHHHHH!! Hehh... HiiiIIIITSSSSHHHHHYUUUUUUUU!!!”

Although all of the sneezes were painful to muffle, the final one was the only one he ultimately failed to prevent. By the time Lumpy was done sneezing, his nose had turned a pinkish red and started running again. Lumpy sighed as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger.

”Ughhh...” A wet sniffle emerged from his poor nostrils. “I need tissues.”

But there was no one around to give him one, and he hadn’t brought any tissues or handkerchiefs with him. So Lumpy went back on his way, sniffling and wiping his nose with his hands and arms constantly.

Soon, however, Lumpy finally made it back to his home. The first thing he did after he’d shut the front door was head into the bathroom, grab a tissue from his box and blow his nose into it. It felt good, but created a tiny tickle in his nose, as it still felt sensitive.

Lumpy sniffled sharply as his snout twitched, but his nostrils couldn’t help but grow and shrink to twice their normal size. He pressed the side of his forefinger under his nostrils and swiped it back and forth, but it wasn’t doing much to help.

”Ghh... huh...” Lumpy could feel his breath hitching as his throat tickled as well, and more tears began to form in his eyes. “Ehh...”

After a few seconds had gone by, however, the urge to sneeze went away, although the tickle in his nose remained where it was. Lumpy rolled his eyes involuntarily and wiped a stray drop of mucus from his nostril.

”Ugh. Looks like I’ll haa... have to make this s-sneeze c-come out myself,” Lumpy acknowledged, occasionally giving a false inhale that didn’t help matters.

He threw away his tissue and headed to the closet, his nose quivering away. When he opened the door, he found all sorts of things - jackets, hats, and a vacuum cleaner. What he was looking for, however, was his feather duster. It’d always made him sneeze, what with its extra soft feathers that were constantly being coated with dust.

As Lumpy searched the closet, something tickled his shoulder, causing him to smirk and giggle. He leaned back to avoid the tickle, and then looked up at what had caused it. It was one of his costume hats, a green one that had a very long, red feather sticking out of one end. The feather, as long as almost every quill Lumpy had ever written with or been tickled with, was what had tickled Lumpy. He smiled, having got an idea. If that was enough to tickle him, it would surely be enough to make him sneeze.

Lumpy pulled the hat out of the closet, turned it around so that it would be backwards, and placed the hat on his head. The position that this hat was placed allowed the feather to droop down towards Lumpy’s nose. It took a few seconds, but finally touched the end of his snout where his nostrils were.

Lumpy stayed still, allowing the feather to idly brush his nose. Hopefully that would make him sneeze. Finally his nose began to twitch again, and Lumpy’s eyes crossed as his mouth fell open. The buildup that followed was hasty, but desperate.

”Aaaa... Haaaa... HAAAHHHH-CHUUUUUUUUUU!!!!”

As Lumpy doubled over with his explosion, he didn’t realize as the force of the sneeze knocked the hat right off his head. It landed on the floor, but thankfully, the hat and feather were unharmed.

Lumpy smiled, feeling a bit better as he rubbed his nose with his forefinger. That sneeze felt great. Seeing what it had done, however, he picked up the hat and put it back in the closet. He then shut the door and walked away from it.

Just then, Lumpy’s stomach growled. He placed his hands over his belly and looked at the clock. Four forty five. It was almost his dinner time. Lumpy headed into the kitchen to make his dinner. He’d decided he would have some mashed potatoes tonight. He got a box from the cupboard, then filled a clean pot with water and switched on the stove. He poured some of the contents of the box into the pot and waited as it cooked. He also picked up a wooden spoon to stir the mashed potatoes with.

Finally, they were ready. Lumpy scooped himself a bowl of mashed potatoes, then went over to the table to enjoy his dinner. He picked up the white salt shaker and added four sprinkles of salt onto his meal. Then he put it down, picked up the black pepper shaker, then stuck his forefinger underneath his nose as he added two sprinkles of pepper onto his meal.

Lumpy’s nose tickled from the pepper, but luckily, he didn’t sneeze. He smiled in satisfaction as he rubbed his nose, then put down the shaker and picked up his spoon to stir his seasonings into his food.

After about ten minutes, Lumpy was done with his dinner. He sat there, rubbing his full belly and licking his lips. He then stood up, picked up his empty bowl and spoon, and went over to the dishwasher to put them in.

When he was done with that, however, his nose twitched again. Lumpy brought his hand up to rub his nose, but the itchy sensation didn’t go away. He had another stuck sneeze that he needed to tease out.

Lumpy looked around the kitchen for something sneezy to inhale, but only found his pepper shaker that had almost made him sneeze. He walked over to it, picked it up and looked at it nervously. Pepper always made him sneeze strongly... But the tickle in his nose was almost as strong... Without thinking, Lumpy turned the shaker upside down and gave one shake, causing a cloud of pepper to enter his nose.

His reaction was immediate. Lumpy’s eyes shot open as his pupils shrunk, and the pepper shaker fell out of his grasp and back onto the table. And as if Lumpy’s already impending urge to sneeze wasn’t enough, the lid on the pepper shaker fell off, spilling all of the pepper out of the shaker. But Lumpy didn’t notice - his nose and nostrils were burning and itching madly.

”Aaah... Aaaaah... Aaaaah!...” Lumpy inhaled, fanning his hand in front of his opening mouth. This was going to be a big one... “AHHHHHHHHH--“

”CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”

  


And with the massive sneeze, all of the pepper that had come out of the pepper shaker went straight into the air. Before he could even rub his nose, Lumpy broke into a sneezing fit that went on for almost a minute.

”AHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOO!!! TCHOOOOOOOOOO!!! TCHUUUUUUUUUUU!!! AAAAH-CHIUUUUUUUUU!!! HAAAAAHHHHH-TCHIUUUUUUUU!!! Aaaaah... TCHEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!! HACHYEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!!! HUUUUHHHHHH-TSHYEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!”

”Hehhh... Eeeehhhh-shooooooo!!! Ghh-hhhh... Nnnshuuuuuuuuuu!!! Ahhh... Haaaaah... AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH-SSSSSSSHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!”

At the end of the sneeze attack, Lumpy’s nose was now bright red, still burning and very runny. Lumpy sniffled loudly as he rubbed his nose many times with his forefinger, feeling like he’d caught another cold.

He headed out of the kitchen, grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table and blew his nose again. It took him a full four seconds before he’d lost his breath and had to stop to wipe his nose.

Just then, he heard the telephone ring. Lumpy weakly made his way to it, picked up the receiver and answered.

”H-hello?”

”Lumpy?!” A familiar voice replied. “Are you alright?”

”Yeah, I’b fide...” Lumpy said, sounding a bit congested. “I just had a really bad sneeze fit.”

”Oh, really? I was wondering who all those super loud sneezes were coming from...” Sniffles replied. “Gesundheit!”

”Thadk you.” Lumpy wiped his nose with his tissue, sniffling loudly. “Sorry about that, by the way.”

”It’s alright, I understand. By the way, how have you been doing since I gave you the cure for your cold?”

”Good, although I’ve been super sneezy.” Another audible sniffle. “Isn’t that weird?”

”Actually, it is,” Sniffles agreed. “I kind of wish I could have been with you, though. I would have loved to see you sneeze as much as you did!”

Lumpy blushed a bit, though Sniffles couldn’t see it over the phone.

”Oh, and Lumpy? About the potion I gave you to cure your cold...”

”Yeah?”

”I may have added a little something to it to keep your sneezes going. I didn’t want you to stop sneezing just because you were cured.”

”Oh...” Lumpy rubbed his nose gently with his forefinger. “I guess that explains all the sneezes.”

”Sorry if that wasn’t what you wanted.”

”No, it’s alright. How could I be mad? Sneezing is something I’ll do whether I’m sick or not.”

Sniffles giggled a bit. “Not wrong there...”

”I’m gonna go now, it’s kinda late. I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay?”

”Okay, Lumpy. Goodbye.”

”Bye.” Lumpy hung up the phone and threw away his used tissue.

He then went upstairs to the bathroom, where he switched on the light and turned on the hot water in the shower. He stepped in and began to clean himself, surrounding himself with drops of warm water and soap suds. All of the dirt on his body was washed away, and just for the heck of it, he scrubbed underneath both his arms and the soles of his feet with a shower brush. It tickled him and he couldn’t help but laugh, but if it didn’t, he wouldn’t be doing this. And besides, he’d had more than enough sneezes for one day, so he took this time to enjoy some tickles.

Finally Lumpy stepped out of the shower and dried off, wrapping some towels around his upper and lower body. Once he was done with that, he brushed his teeth with his toothbrush and some fresh toothpaste, then washed his mouth out with a glass of water. Just before he left the bathroom, he saw a folded handkerchief on top of the folded towels on his hamper. He grabbed the handkerchief and shook it out, then brought it with him into his bedroom.

Lumpy put on his light blue pajamas, as blue as his fur, starting with his top before he pulled the bottoms up. His handkerchief that he’d gotten from the bathroom went into the pocket that the pajama top had, but then he remembered something.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the feather that had landed on his nose and made him sneeze earlier today. Maybe a few more tickles couldn’t hurt. He pulled his pajama top up slightly, then wiggled the feather upon his bare tummy.

”Hahahahaha!!” Lumpy laughed and kept going for a few seconds. “That, that ticklesss! Hahaha!”

Lumpy then pulled the feather away from his belly and panted a few times to calm himself down. Yes, this feather was definitely going to be useful in the future. He went over to his desk, opened it up and placed the feather inside before he closed it again. He then looked over at the clock next to his bed.

He was just in time for bed. Lumpy yawned into his hand, then went over to his bed and crawled into it. He’d had a pretty sneezy day today, so he couldn’t help but wonder what was in store for him tomorrow. More sneezes, probably, or perhaps some tickles. It’d be nice if he spent a majority of tomorrow being tickled, mostly to make up for all of his sneezes from today. He could only hope that if that was the case, it would all be playful with no torture involved.

He switched off the lamp, lay his head on the pillow and went to sleep. Over his snoring, he could hear crickets chirping outside.


End file.
